Hot and Dusty Weekend Ride
This was the hottest ride I have ever been on! In typical Minnesota fashion it was 99 degrees Fahrenheit this weekend – even up north – after being in the 60’s over Memorial Weekend. It was so cold last weekend over night that people were covering their plants down in the cities where we live. Thankfully it didn’t get so cold that the plants in my garden made it through the cold snap. So, of course, this weekend needed to be incredibly hot to make up for last weekend. And of course, we had to go out for a couple rides in the hot, dusty conditions.
There hasn’t been any significant rain in the Outing area in about six weeks which means all of the trials were incredibly dusty. My Can Am Maverick Sport RC runs pretty hot too so it was definitely a warm ride both nights we got out. We went out pretty late on Friday to avoid the heat as much as possible and it wasn’t too bad really. That night we went down the A trail in the area that we’ve been avoiding because the last time we rode that trail it was so wet it was difficult to get through. There are using that trail for the pipeline work that’s going on in the area so they also put aprons down – large wooden beams – for the heavy equipment to drive on to protect the wetlands. We read some comments that these were tricky in spots to hop on and off and to be careful in that area.
The second night we went out our mission was to get to the ATV parking area for Draper Road. We have an event coming up in a couple weeks for the ATV club we are a part of – Over The Hills Gang – and we needed to start to plan for that ride. My husband volunteered to lead a ride from that parking lot to Hill City. We wanted to see how long it would take for us to get there using the trails. My husband wanted to trailer over there initially so that ride yesterday gave us a better idea of timing for the up coming Pork-n-Ride event. It only took us a little over 30 minutes to get there and we were kind of putzing. Now we know at least that we can make it there without trailering which is ideal.
One of the stops we made while we were in the area yesterday was the Draper Tower. It’s a destination spot on the trails that we first went to this winter with a friend of ours up in the outing area. He’s a part of the club and was doing a pre-run of the trails for the Getting Loose on the Moose ride that we went to over the winter. We rode along with him and his wife and stopped at this tower. He told us that it’s a little sketchy to go up and that they removed the lower stairs to discourage folks from going up to the top.
We decided since we were close we would stop there and take some pics. We took the Wren Loop home which was awesome because it’s a pretty shady trail and it wasn’t nearly as dusty which, quite honestly, was shocking. We found some puddles along those trails and got the machines a little dirtier. Even though it was a really hot and dusty it was a great weekend for a couple quick rides.